Chance does not always do things well.
In his book My new stories, Jean Chrétien praises his memory. But at the same time, he says he does not remember the testimonies about the abuses in the residential schools when he was the minister responsible, from 1968 to 1974.
A few years after leaving politics, Mr. Chrétien began to learn poems by heart, he says in his book. One way to maintain his mind. It wasn’t that long ago that he could remember 1500 worms.
At 87, he’s still alive, as I saw during our interview in a suite at The Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It is a real force of nature. And he is not happy that the story of the residential schools encroaches on the promotion of his book …
The 1968 letter from a teacher in Fort Albany, Ontario, denouncing the abuse? What about the investigation launched by his department in 1971, and the report filed in 1973 on assaults at the La Tuque establishment? Not in the know either.
” I did not know ! And we cannot act on what we did not know, ”he says categorically.
He adds, “Listen, at my age, I’m not going to start filling you up. ”
After such a long political career, it is understandable that certain files escape his memory or that one letter among hundreds of others never reached his office. But what is striking is the absence of regrets towards those he still calls “Indians”.
Even though Mr. Chrétien deplores these abuses, he hastens to put them into perspective by extolling the role of residential schools in educating Aboriginals. It didn’t have to be so brutal though.
Worse, to Everybody talks about it, he dared to draw a parallel with his own experience – chosen and not suffered – in a boarding school, where he had to eat “baked beans and porridge” …
But if he had been a bad Minister of Indian Affairs, he defends himself, the First Nations would not have intervened with Pierre Elliott Trudeau after the 1972 election to keep him in office. And if he was callous, he wouldn’t have adopted a son from an orphanage in Inuvik.
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I started journalism a few months after the end of Jean Chrétien’s career. So this was my first interview with him. I am struck by how well he privately matches his public image. He is a fighter.
As he puts it, in politics, “longevity is never accidental”. In his 40-year career – “40 and a half years,” he corrects – he has never lost an election. He headed eight ministries and three majority governments.
That’s a lot of anecdotes. Hence this book, his fourth. He wrote it in the morning, by hand, according to inspiration. Short vignettes of a few pages to tell memories and share thoughts on the job.
He belongs to a different generation of politicians. The Chrétien-Boisvert couple had 19 children, 10 of whom died at birth.
“Little Jean” grew up in Shawinigan in a modest environment, without being poor. He has a tough rind. A chapter tells how he took the plane at 85 years old despite an early kidney stone. Elsewhere, he talks about his scares in the air. A door has already opened at 10,000 feet above sea level. Another time there was a bomb threat. Not to mention a landing under the snowmobile lights so that the pilot can see the track. In each case, he says he remained relatively calm.
This vitality remains. He still works at Dentons – “the largest law firm in the world,” he says. And he did not drop out of politics. When the two Michael’s (Kovrig and Spavor) were imprisoned in China, people were losing money and his phone rang. As many calls from China as from Canada. He spoke to Justin Trudeau, and previously to his right-hand man Gerald Butts and the Minister responsible Chrystia Freeland. None of his suggestions were accepted. “Stunned” by so much “carelessness”, he “took his hole”.
Still, history has proven him right. It was indeed a conflict more political than legal, and it was President Joe Biden who put an end to this disguised hostage-taking.
Mr. Chrétien is a formidable strategist. He is passionate about the political game. Unlike most premiers, he loved Question Period. And he remains nostalgic for the old ways of doing things. “Before television, we weren’t allowed to have grades. […] It was real exchanges, an intellectual struggle, you had to know your files and be skillful. ”
I advance that for him, the end could justify the means, especially with those which he calls the “separatists”. But before I can talk about the unilateral patriation of the Constitution, the 1995 “love-in”, the post-referendum plan B or the sponsorship scandal, he interrupts me. “Come on! They lost and we won. It’s that simple. ”
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The “little guy from Shawinigan” rubbed shoulders with the great statesmen of the late 20th century.e iscle, like Václav Havel, Lech Walesa and Nelson Mandela. His book also talks about his relations with Bill Clinton, George Bush father and son or Boris Elstine, Vladimir Poutine, Helmut Kohl and Jacques Chirac, a relative.
We discover a way of doing politics that will not come back. For example, G7 leaders could afford a walkabout in 1995 at the Halifax market. Today, he laments, these summits are big and expensive, and the exchanges, too formal. “During long meetings, I often saw participants do crosswords or play cards on their tablets,” he writes.
He was the spontaneous type. His funny statements made history. I ask him if his candor was calculated, if he exaggerated his accent to make it more authentic. “Yes, I could speak French to the people of Saint-Maurice,” he replies ironically. He will not explain himself further.
Looking back, this working-class son, who had to change college three times as a teenager, is surprised to have cultivated relationships with people like Queen Elizabeth II. In private, the two spoke to each other in French. That is why she hid a smile when Mr. Chrétien signed the patriation of the Constitution.
Her pen had just broken and he released a “shit” that she understood …
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Beneath his clumsy charmer’s air, Mr. Chrétien is relentlessly firm. Even today, he congratulates himself on advising the Queen not to apologize to the Maoris of New Zealand. He also says he recommended Tony Blair not to cede too much power to Scotland.
Apologies, tears for the cameras, it’s not for him.
I ask him if he has any concerns for the future. “I’m an optimist,” he said, before I managed to talk about the environment.
On the climate, relations with the First Nations and the confrontation with Quebec, his speech contrasts with that of Justin Trudeau and the next generation.
Old age is a lonely road. His beloved wife Aline died last year. About his friends, he jokes: “I would like to take a tee shot with them, but it’s difficult, they are dead. ”
His modesty is an endangered quality. Even though he briefly mentions his faith in a few stories, he refuses to talk more about it. “It’s personal,” he explains.
He only says he chooses Pascal’s bet – the believer loses nothing if he is wrong, while the unbeliever exposes himself to divine wrath.
“It’s my choice, I’m not taking a chance. ”